Will Ferrell is Hollywood's most over-rated overpaid star

Tops Forbes' list of fiscal shame

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Will Ferrell has landed Forbes' "Most Overpaid Star" honour, topping a list of names who sometimes "cost more than their box office worth".

Ferrell's elevation to fiscal fame and shame is partly as a result of this summer's Land of the Lost crash and burn, which saw the movie cost $100m and recoup just $65m at the box office. Accordingly, and despite his popularity, for every dollar Ferrell earned, he generated just $3.29 in takings.

This compares very unfavourably indeed with Transformers thesp Shia LaBeouf, who was in August crowned "Best Actor for the Buck" after attracting $160 for the studio for each modest dollar on his pay cheque.

Flying the flag for Britain in the Forbes "terrible investment" roster is Ewan McGregor ($3.75 per buck), followed by Billy Bob Thornton ($4) Eddie Murphy ($4.43) and Ice Cube ($4.47).

Tom Cruise gained sixth spot by drumming up $7.18, while the sole female representative in the top ten is Drew Barrymore, who squeezed into seventh with $7.43.

Bootnote

In case you're wondering, here's how Forbes did its sums: "We calculated each star's estimated earnings on each film, including up-front pay and any earnings from the film's box office receipts, DVD and TV sales.

"We then looked at each movie's estimated budget (not including marketing costs, which are susceptible to accounting chicanery) and box office, DVD and television earnings to figure out an operating income for each film.

"We added up each star's compensation on his or her last three films and the operating income on those films and divided total operating income by the star's total compensation to come up with each return-on-investment number."